As Promised

I finally finished block #2 of my Primitive Garden wool applique. As I promised, here is the picture of my second finished block......

Next it's on to the Geranium in a pot. Since that block is only 8 1/2 by 10 1/2, I hope it doesn't take as long as the last one. It was worth it, I think. My goal is to have the top finished by this time next year. Think I'll make it? Oh well, goals are good aren't they? I've never been much of a goal maker.....that's next year's New Years resolution, to make and try to keep goals. I've heard that's a good thing to do. We'll see............

I also finished the last quilt that I had on the frame. I really have to stop making every quilt into a custom job. And I wonder why it takes me so long to finish them, a simple panto would have been much faster. Would a panto have been as nice? The minute I saw the border, it turned into a custom job.

See what I mean?

Sorry about this picture, it's not so good, I hope you can see the star in the blue block.

I did have fun playing with my Circle Lord templates......I used them to do the border and the stars. There's also a design in the flag blocks done with the Circle Lord but it doesn't show up in the pictures.

Since I'm off from school for a couple of weeks I hope to have more to show you in the very near future.

For now, I hope everyone has a Happy and prosperous New Year.

Happy Quilting!

Thanksgiving

We had the kids and their kids over for Thanksgiving. This is the first year in a long time that I can remember all three of them being here. I thought that I'd take this time to share some photos of them.

This is my daughter, Heather.....

Her husband, Kevin ........

Their daughter, Haley with her cousin, Dillon......

Their son, Kevin James.......

Dillon's parents, my son Wayne and his girlfriend, Jessi.......

And last but not least, my son Ryan with Haley.......

As usual the day went by way too quickly. It was so much fun to have them all together at our house for the holiday, to share all the conversation, laughter and good food.

I know this post is a bit late, but I had to work Black Friday and today at JoAnn's. The store was so busy, you would think that they were giving things away. I'm not complaining because that means job security. With the economy the way it is more people are making their gifts this year.

I hope everyone had a happy and blessed Thanksgiving.

Happy Quilting!

Coleen

A Boring Life

After reading a lot of your blogs............

I've come to the conclusion that I must lead a really boring life. I daily read every one's blogs and for the life of me, I can't think of a single thing to say very often. The only time I seem to have anything to post is when I'm working on a project, which isn't too often lately. I went back to school which doesn't leave much time between homework and studying for tests. The teachers make sure that you never run out of tests to take but I'm really not complaining. The one regret that I've always had was not having gone to college and now I am. I consider myself to be very lucky to be going now even at my age.

I do keep checking in on all of your wonderful blogs as often as I can.

So now that I'm done whining, I'll share a couple of pics of the latest quilt that I've been working on. It's a Quilt of Valor that I'm doing for a lady who's been paying a LongArmer to quilt these for her. Some how I can't see charging someone to quilt something that she's donating to charity. I won't however presume to pass judgement on someone else. If this is her livelihood, she needs to make money and probably can't afford to quilt for free. I'm sure I couldn't afford to do too many of these myself.

I did the crosshatching with one of my new Circle Lord templates. I had a lot of fun playing with it. I'm also using my CL to put stars in all the solid blue patches.

I'm hoping to have it off the frame in a few days and I'll post a picture of the finished quilt.

Here's a picture of my current wool applique block. I'm not quite finished with it yet but I'm making progress.

That's all I have for now. Thanks so much for visiting.

Happy Quilting!

The journey to the birth of a block

I started working on the second block of my wool applique quilt. I thought I'd share some pictures of the process......

It all starts with the wool.

All the pieces are traced on to freezer paper and ironed on the wool.
So many pieces...........

Next, I stapled the pieces to the background. I learned that staples are so much earier to work with. Your thread doesn't get caught on the staples and they are very easy to remove.

A little more progress ............

We're all set to start stitching..........
I'll post more pictures when it's a finished block. Thanks for visiting.

Happy Quilting!

Cooties on her quilt

My friend Bren ,the most wonderful hand quilter that I know, asked me to help her baste her beautiful Basket quilt the other day. In order to save both of our backs, I suggested she let me baste it on my machine. She said that putting her quilt on my machine was going to give it "COOTIES"(REMEMBER, SHE'S A HAND QUILTER). After a bit of convincing, I got to take it home so I thought I'd share a couple of pictures of her basket quilt on my machine.

(Close your eyes and scroll fast Bren)

I dropped it off at her house today. She probably has it in the hoop and is quilting it. Go to her blog http://piecesfromme.blogspot.com/ and see a picture of the entire top. It is just gorgeous, I can't wait to see it finished.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Quilting!

A short rant

I don't know which I hate worse, thistle or Japanese beetles. Thistle is trying to choke out my flowers and the beetles are trying to eat it away.

Today I pulled three carts full of this stuff out of my flowers.

I haven't been very good to my flowers this year. I've been in school and working for the past couple of months so everything has been neglected. If it weren't for my DH the whole yard would have been lost to creeping charlie.

I should have taken a picture of the garden before I started but I didn't so here's a couple of the after.

At least now, you can see what's left of the mulch. I'll try very hard to be much better to the garden for the rest of the summer. However, I start school again in another two weeks......we'll see.

I took a picture of a Japanese Beetle on my Trumpet Vine but you can hardly see it. It's the blurry thing at the top of the flower. I wish I could blur them all out of existence forever.

Thanks for reading my little rant.

Happy Quilting!

Something new to spend my money on

My newest love is wool applique. I swore that I wouldn't do it but then I went to a quilt show and fell in love with a pattern so here I go again.

This of course, requires wool.........

A whole suitcase full and then some.......

Then there's the thread.......

Lots and lots of threads...........

Here's the first block of many.........


It will be so worth it when it's done! My new obsession!!!

Here are some pictures of a quilt that I just finished for one of the local quilt shops.

Here's a picture of the back. I love the fabrics.

That's all I have to share for now. Thanks for looking!

Happy Quilting!

More of what I've been up to lately!

I tried to include this in my last post but either Google or I am having issues.

Here are some pictures of the ways that I've been putting some of the fabric from one of my previous posts to use.

I'm pretty sure that I won't be doing the large block in the center of this one. One of my friends suggested that I put my favorite block, Mariner's Compass in the center instead. I'm still thinking about that one.........Any suggestions or opinions welcome!

This is the only block that I have finished so far...........

This is the $5 quilt that I'm in once a month at a local shop........
I was trying to post a picture of the complete pattern but Google and I still seem to be having issues and I can't drag my pictures once I've uploaded them. (Is anyone else having that problem?) These are a few of the blocks in the quilt.


I used to have a horrible time with a square in a square but, thank goodness, I've overcome that and they go together quite well for me now.

Besides this I'm working on my Jo Morton quilt and really trying to get the Feathered Star finished for the show.

That's all I have to share for now. Thank you very much for visiting!

Happy Quilting!

What I've been up to lately

On my header is a picture of my unquilted Feathered Star. It's still not 100% finished but it's well on it's way. I entered it in our local quilt show with the goal of finishing it. It has been in the works for 13 years or more (I've lost track of the time).

Here's my progress so far...........

The quilt has to be finished by the 28th. I've been working on it every day this week. I procrastinated as usual and now I'm under the gun. WISH ME LUCK!!!!

Happy Quilting!

This one is for you Bren

The other day, or was it last week, I got a comment from my friend Bren admonishing me because I had neglected to post pictures of the fabrics that I had purchased recently. So on that note, Bren here are the pictures.

The first pictures are of the fabrics that I purchased to make a block of the month at one of the local stores called J Rose. I purchased them from a lovely quilt shop in Belvidere called All My Stitches Quilt Shop. Cyndie, the owner must think that I'm quite insane. I bought two kits because there was not enough of the line left on the bolts to make my quilt. I then went back to purchase the backing (what could a self respecting quilter do, it was on sale for 50% off?). The next day Bren and I went back so I could purchase more to make pillowcases and the dust ruffle.

The pink plaid is for the backing and the green to the left is the dust ruffle.

Aren't they yummy?

This is my new favorite tool. These are actually scrap booking cases but they are the perfect size to carry your fabrics or to house 12 1/2" blocks. The quilt shops sell these for around $30 but you can get them at JoAnn's for about $15 and if you have a 40% off coupon.....well you see where I'm going.

Here is a picture of the pattern for the BOM. I'm not sure that I'm going to do the large block in the center. If anyone has any suggestions please share them.

I'm going to be very busy for the next 6 months. I'm involved in 2 BOMs and a Jo Morton club. Here are some pictures of fabrics that I've purchased for the Jo club.
One of the membership conditions was that you had to purchase 5 bundles of fat quarters to use in the quilts. We will be making 3 Jo Morton little quilts over a 6 month period.
This is a picture of the quilts that we will be making.

Here are more of the fat quarters.....

The Jo Morton collection is my favorite. The first collection that I showed is from Henry Glass for Buggy Barn called Sherbet. I loved the fabrics when I first saw them but I must say that they are not my usual choices. I am stepping way out of my box in using them. I usually do not prefer pastells. I prefer Jewel tones but not all the quilts in my collection can be red and green. This time I'm going for pinks, blues, browns and light green.

I will show some pictures of the fabrics for the other BOM and the pattern in my next post. Until then........

Happy Quilting!